Somewhere in the Crowd
by Bandelero-Casanova
Summary: Haruno Sakura left Konoha to follow a career in singing, now she's back for a one night show. It's a lonely life and when Sakura feels like she can't go on, a certain someone emerges, someone who promised to always be there for her. NaruSaku. Oneshot.


**DISCLAIMER**: I do not own Naruto, nor the song _Super Trouper_ by ABBA, which is where Sakura's song comes from.

**DEDICATED TO**: show.me.the.stars, my best mate and the person who has constantly asked me to focus my powers onto some NaruSaku. This is for you stars, so you better review it!!

* * *

**SOMEWHERE IN THE CROWD**

A warm Summer's breeze floated through the peaceful village, twisting and dancing through the low-rise buildings that were bathed in afternoon shadow. Kicking up the multi-coloured tapestries that hung from the eves of the market stalls throughout the city square, the wind rolled about the hands of a silent figure, who was leaning contently against the Ichiraku Ramen stand. Quietly, the blonde gazed down with sparkling azure eyes at the poster clutched between his calloused fingers. A smile crossing his lips as he read the wind battered parchment.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

The World Famous

**HARUNO SAKURA**

Performs at the

Sarutobi Memorial Stadium!

**ONE NIGHT ONLY!!**

6:00 – 10:00pm,

Tickets available at the Door.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

* * *

Steamy tears rolled down her cheeks as the pink haired singer looked longingly into the mirror, trying to find the girl she used to be under the layers of make-up and designer hair-do. She felt so different, so wrong.

"I-I don't want to do this anymore, Hanaki-sama" Sakura silently sobbed, wringing her hands, just like she did before every performance. Her emerald green orbs tracing the slowly ticking hands of the clock above her light-bulb encircled mirror.

With a huff, Sakura's manager stepped from the shadows. The bottom-heavy, ebony skinned, former-pop-princess sighing as she approached her prodigy – the former medic kunoichi, Haruno Sakura. "Now don't you dare go fretting, Sakura-chan!" Hanaki said, her big black bee-hive hair wobbling slightly as she placed her ring littered hands upon the thin girls frame. The many silver sequins of Hanaki's dress almost blinding Sakura as they glittered in the harsh, artificial light.

"You've done a hundred of these shows and you does always get them jitters up before hand. Once you set yourself on that stage there, love, you'll be right….It'll be a blast, baby" pressured the manager, desperate to work the angel-voiced young woman through her pre-stage jitters.

"Ha-na-ki-saama" cried the pink haired woman suddenly, dropping her head into her hands. Her shoulders shaking beneath her managers thick fingers, "It's not even about that! It's not just this show, it's every show…" Grunting, Sakura bit her lip, relishing the pain. The first thing she had truly felt in months.

It had been seven months since the former medic ninja had left Konoha, leaving to pursue a dream that wasn't entirely hers. She loved to sing, it was true, but this was more her parent's dream than her own. Still, she had persisted. Her voice, like a song-bird, had made her famous throughout the many shinobi nations. It had bought her fame, money, fans, friends and even the occasional lover.

Yet still… there were times… when she felt so completely alone. A throbbing feeling resounding through her fleshy heart as she spent the nights by herself, wrapped within the scratchy sheets of some random hotel bed.

At first, she hadn't cried. She was Haruno Sakura, the one-time apprentice of Lady Tsunade, one of the legendary Sannin. She was made of sterner stuff. Eventually though, everything comes to an end and as days rolled into weeks… and weeks rolled into months… the tears did come.

When she first cried, it wasn't over anyone she had even considered missing to such an extent. Of all the people in her home of Konoha, Sakura had cried over Jiraiya. A thin romance novel haphazardly lying between her fingers, it's pages open wide before her, Sakura felt the sharpest of pangs in her heart. The half-rate plot and the poor grammar reminding her of the very same books that the pervert Sannin was so famous for.

After Jiraiya, all the other tears came easier. An odd sentence, a strange picture, the glitter of light through the trees; anything and everything reminded her of her home and how badly she missed it.

Now, she was back. Yet never had Sakura ever wanted to be further away. She was scared, terrified in fact, of how Konoha would react when she stepped out onto that hardwood stage, built specifically for her in the same stadium she had watched the Chuunin exams in.

"Love, everything will be fine –" whispered Hanaki into her ear, brushing back the pink hair of her little singing sensation. Pinning back that same pink mop with a rosy-red carnation. "—I promise".

Sakura couldn't help but sigh, shivering as cool evening air wrapped around her bare shoulders. Her puffy pink, strapless dress flowing around her knees as she resumed "putting on her face" for the show. The desire to get this performance over and done with was killing her.

Patting her face with a powder-puff, Sakura jumped as the door opened behind her. The butterflies in her stomach swirling about before she could relax again. Revealing nothing more than one of the mere stage hands she had become so accustom to ignoring.

"Miss H-Haruno? A gift arrived for you, from a fan, I-I think" stuttered the black clad assistant. His hands shaking as he waddled forward with the wilted flowers pressed against his chest. Handing them over cautiously.

"Dead flowers? Marvellous…" snorted Sakura's manager, turning her wide back on the frail man.

"Iie, it's okay… I'm sure they meant well" the singer said as the flowers flopped between her fingers, sending the assistant scooting out the door before he could be blamed for the gift's obvious poor state of health.

Her lip curling slightly, the sixteen year old ran her hand over the scrap of paper, meticulously tapped, removed and then retaped to the cellophane wrap of the wilted wild flowers.

Fingering open the paper, a toothy grin erupted over her face and that oh-so-familiar pang of pain tore through her heart as fresh tears fell from the beautiful ninja's watery eyes.

Her vision ruined by the flood of tears, Sakura peered down at the worn, sauce-stained, Ichiraku Ramen stand menu. The deep red ink that marred the already printed paper making her ache inside. It's distinctive swirl easily recognizable.

"Naruto…"

* * *

Shivering, not from fear but from excitement, Sakura ran her hand up the black microphone. The line of diamantes around the base of the head glittering in the dim side-stage light. She listened quietly for the announcement, for her que to go one stage, now the nerves were setting in again. Nerves do that though.

The call came, a roaring applause rippling through the lush red velvet curtains of the Sarutobi Stadium and with it, came Sakura. Her red stilettos tapping on the polished floor as she strutted her way to the centre mark.

The curtain rose, revealing before Sakura what must have been the entirety of Konoha. The crowds heads bobbing up and down as they adjusted themselves until comfortable, their whispers like roars in the pink-head's ears.

It was a sea. The crowd was always a sea. A great big moving mass of faces, none of which she could really tell apart from another, like drops of water in the sea. They were all the same. With her chest heaving beneath the strapless, coral cocktail dress, Sakura chewed her lip as she stared out into the sea before her.

Suddenly she twitched, her peripheral vision finding something unique. Her head flung over and her mouth feel agape, emerald green orbs falling onto a comforting and somewhat dazzling head of golden hair.

Eyes heavy and a small smile across her lips, Haruno Sakura gazed down at the one person she had missed above all others, Uzumaki Naruto. The knuckleheaded ninja that had always, always been there for her… Just like the menu stuffed inside her dress had promised. His full-faced smile and big, aqua eyes locking onto Sakura's green ones.

Then the music began and Sakura knew exactly what to do. Opening her eyes again, she smiled --her first truly happy smile in months-- down towards the avidly attentive blonde and those who sat besides him. A man with silver-hair, another with his eyes firmly not placed on Sakura's face, a black-haired teen with a pair of opera spectacles placed on his nose as he mouth the words "shut up, dickless wonder" and a woman whose chest was puffed out so far from pride, Sakura was nervous the sheer mass of the enormous cleavage might send the plastic stadium chair into a thousand tiny pieces.

Hauling up the microphone to her glossy lips, Sakura took in a breath and began.

"I'd like to dedicate tonight's performance --this opening song particularly-- to somebody very special to me, someone who has always stood besides me, no matter how I've acted or what I've done… Naruto, this song is for you" Sakura crooned, eyes closing as she paused.

_" I was sick and tired of everything  
When I called you last night from Glasgow  
All I do is eat and sleep and sing  
Wishing every show was the last show"_

Sakura opened her eyes, the lights reflecting on them brightly as she sang out into the crowd.

_"So imagine I was glad to hear you're coming  
Suddenly I feel all right  
And it's gonna be so different  
When I'm on the stage tonight!"_

She stepped forward, being careful not to slip on the timber that had been cleaned and polished so thoroughly for her performance. Her stride taking her right over to the edge, face-to-face with the dedicatee of her song.

_" Super Trouper beams are gonna blind me  
But I won't feel blue  
Like I always do  
'Cause somewhere in the crowd there's you"_

* * *

Smirking to himself, her voice still ringing through his ears, Naruto stood outside the stadium. Pulling his long, trench-coat closer around him, shivering in the cold evening air. She, Haruno Sakura, had dedicated her first song to him. To _him _of all people. Naruto didn't think he'd ever felt more honoured before.

His breath suddenly hitched, a figure coming towards him through the shadows.

"I didn't think you'd come, Naruto-kun" blushed Sakura, goose-pimples running up and down her soft, creamy skin as she looked up into Naruto's eyes. He had grown taller, she was sure of it. There was a moments silence, the gap between them closing as he pulled her into a gentle embrace.

"I promised you that I'd always care about you, no matter what. Just like I wrote" he added, letting Sakura out of his arms, her eyes fixed to the blonde shinobi's chest.

"Thankyou…" Sakura mumbled, leaning into her companions warm jacket. His heartbeat thundering through her head like the bellows of some ancient song, a song she felt so close to. Reaching into the top of her dress, Sakura pulled out the crumbled menu, Naruto's promises of eternal adoration scribbled over a picture of tonkotsu ramen.

"Naruto?"

"Hai…"

"I've missed you"

Silently, he raised a hand and ran it through Sakura's pink locks. Bringing her closer to him again, anything to make this moment last.

"I've missed you, Naruto-kun. I didn't think I would… but I did" the former kunoichi sobbed, sticky tears rolling down her face, sending mascara streaks down Naruto's white dinner shirt. Her frail fingertips dropping the note onto the pavement.

"I don't want to do this anymore, I don't want to travel around anymore. I was happy here, I don't want to leave again…" she continued. Using her wrists to wipe away the black lines running down her face. There was a snort, making her look up, her blank, somewhat shocked face barely two inches away from the blue-eyed blonde's one.

He stood there, looking down at her, his smile small and his eyes dark. Chuckling to himself, Naruto ran a hand over the singer's stained cheek. Edging closer and closer.

"Then don't" he said, leaning towards her. His warm, salty lips brushing against Sakura's own delicate ones, almost blue from the cold. Sakura's hands resting against the blonde's face.

Sighing, he pulled away. Pulling the pink haired young woman to his chest. Sakura's eyes growing wide as she considered the very arms that she was held in. Uzumaki Naruto, he's been such a clown, so foolish and idiotic. Yet, there was something about him she'd always liked. His dedication to his friends, his sense of justice… his kindness.

"N-Naruto?" she questioned, shocked. That odd little spot inside her aching, wanting more, wanting him.

"Don't leave" he repeated to her, nuzzling her hair. Breathing in it's strawberry scent. Sakura sagged into his arms, her eyes dry and her mind racing. Happily, she wrapped her arms around the thin shinobi's waist.

She raised her head, batting her eyelashes as she shone viridian up at Naruto's swirling cyan. "Okay" she whispered, lips brushing his again, his hot breath warming her face.

"Okay? You'll stay?" beamed the blonde.

"On one condition"

"Nani?" laughed Naruto, resting the side of his face against hers. Hiding in the shadows, he let his hands run up her back.

"I get to stay with you" Sakura pulled away, her hands on Naruto's hips. Her cheeks burning bright red.

Naruto stared at her in disbelief, the bottom of his coat billowing in the wind. His hands, now calloused and rough from years of training, held her shoulders. Giving her some warmth.

"Okay" he smiled, taking her hand. Pausing suddenly. He eased off his coat, draping it across the young lady's shoulders. Then, taking her hand again, he lead her towards the buzzing night-life of Konoha, the many lights of the city flashing like stars and --for the first time in months-- Sakura didn't feel so lonely.

* * *

**AUTHORS NOTE**: Nah! I hope it made sense!! This little oneshot is based on the ABBA song _Super Touper_. I don't actually like ABBA but my mother bought the _Mamma Mia_ soundtrack and makes me listen to it. .

When I heard this song, my mind suddenly thought of Naruto and Sakura! I'm not much of a song-fic fan (not that I'd call this a song-fic, I just have some lyrics in here) but I just had to write this.

I hope you all enjoyed it, please review if you can! It is most appreciated!!


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